Well Read Column by Robert Weibezahl

The story of John Kennedy Toole and A Confederacy of Dunces is a publishing legend. A writer of unfilled promise, Toole committed suicide in 1969. More than a decade later, his indomitable mother managed to get a book that had been deemed unpublishable, published—and it went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. This tragic episode is often carted out as a cautionary tale about the vagaries and...